The Amazing Spider-Man: Learning Curve
by amazingspidey
Summary: Taking place a week after the events of The Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker finds himself struggling with his promise to keep away from Gwen Stacy and balancing his life as a fledgling young superhero and high school student.
1. Chapter 1

October 15, 2012

8:28 AM

"Peter!" a voice from behind Peter's bedroom door yelled. "Peter, what are you doing in there?"

Peter was lying on the floor with his mouth wide open, drooling. This is the first time he had slept in over a week.

"Peter! Get up!"

Peter realized that the voice wasn't from his dream and, in fact, was coming from outside his bedroom door. "Wha-?" Peter managed, spitting a piece of carpet out of his mouth.

"You're going to be late for school. What are you doing in there?" Aunt May asked.

"I'm up, I'm up, I'm up. I was just—studying?" Peter wasn't fully awake and his brain was still trying to register what was going on.

"No you weren't, you were sleeping." Aunt May said sternly.

"Yeah, yeah, no. No, I wasn't. I was just-" Peter stood up and looked down. He was still wearing his suit. "Oh, shit." he said quietly.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing, Aunt May! I'll be down there in a second." Peter listened outside the door until he was sure his aunt had made it downstairs. A glove along with a web shooter was missing from the suit as well as his mask. Peter rubs his eyes and looks at himself in the mirror. He has a black eye and a sharp cut on his forehead. He can't remember anything. The last thing he remembers was swinging and then everything going fuzzy. "Ugh..." Peter groans.

His takes off his suit, throws it in his backpack, puts on the same shirt, jacket, and jeans he wore the day before which were lying on his floor, and grabbed his backpack. Peter walks down the stairs as quietly and quickly as possible and walks out the door so Aunt May doesn't see him.

8:44 AM

Peter makes it to school just a minute before the bell rings and manages to make it to his first period class five seconds before the tardy bell. His teacher notices him slip in just as the bell rings and Peter gives her an awkward "I promised" smile. Ms. Griddle smirks as Peter slides into his desk and buries his head in his arms. He felt like sleeping right then there and never waking up again? _How can a desk be so comfortable? _he thought to himself.

"Peter." A soothing and comfortably familiar voice says.

"Hm?" Peter lifts his head up. It's Gwen sitting in the desk in front of him. He must have not noticed her walking to his seat because all he could think of was sleep. "Oh, hey," Peter smiles.

"Are you okay? Were you doing what you do last night?" Gwen knowingly kept her voice down knowing how protective Peter is of his secret identity. "What happened to your face?"

"I, uh, really don't know. It's—I can't remember," Peter rubs his face as if to wipe the bruise and cut off.

"What do you mean?" Gwen asked.

Peter notices her voice croaked slightly. She was worried about him. "I'm fine, Gwen. I'm okay, I just didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night, that's all."

Ms. Griddle notices the two of them talking. "Ms. Stacy and Mr. Parker, do I need to move you two? There is a warm-up on the board."

"No, ma'am," Peter and Gwen say at the same time. They looked at each other in the eyes and then Gwen quickly turned her head and pulled out her notebook from her backpack. Peter did the same and they didn't talk to each other for the rest of class.

3:51 PM

The bell to dismiss classes for the day rung and everyone was rushing to get to their cars before the traffic out of school got too bad. Peter didn't have a car, he would usually just ride his skateboard home, but for some reason he didn't feel like bringing it to school today.

Peter makes his way through the crowd to get out of the building and just as he steps out of the door, someone taps him on the shoulder. Peter turns around and smiles. "Hey."

"Hey," Gwen grinned. "What are you doing after school today?"

Peter swallows. He knows being this close to Gwen is wrong but yet it feels so right. He promised her father that he would stay away from her and now he's breaking a dead man's promise. "Nothing, just, uh, y'know, homework," What Peter honestly wanted to do was to hug her and never let go. Her presence was the only thing keeping him sane with everything going on.

"You want to study together?" Gwen asked as her eyes lit up.

Peter desperately wants to say yes but he chokes out something else. "Gwen, I—I can't. I can't do this." He looks at the ground to avoid eye contact with her. Seeing her eyes gives him butterflies.

"What?" Gwen whimpers.

"I can't." Peter sighs.

"This isn't what my father meant, you know." Gwen says sternly.

The sudden change in tone in her voice makes Peter jump just a bit. "I promised-"

Gwen cuts Peter off. "You promised for you to stay away and never talk to me ever again? I don't think so. What are the exact words he said?"

Peter looks down at the ground again.

"Peter, what are the exact words he said?" Gwen asks again sounding a bit impatient.

"He said 'leave her out of it'," Peter begins to walk away. He doesn't know why, he just doesn't want to upset Gwen.

Gwen grabs Peter's shoulder. "But he didn't say 'never talk to her again'. Peter, I'm pretty sure he just meant to stay out of getting involved with the whole Spider-Man thing."

"I'm sorry." Peter walks away feeling as if he just left a piece of himself behind and he had the desperate urge to go pick it back up. He saw the way Captain Stacy had looked at him when he made him promise. Peter knew what the Captain really meant. Using all the strength he had in his body, he was able to pull away.


	2. Chapter 2

4:18 PM

Peter runs to his house as quickly as possible. Aunt May is usually home from work at around 4:30 and Peter wanted to be home before before his aunt sees him. It didn't take long for Peter to get to the school to his house considering he has the proportionate speed of a spider. He still hasn't tested his limits to how fast he could go but he pushed them on his way home. Peter was running at least fifty miles per hour. All he could think about was Gwen. Why did he just do that? Why would he break up with her and then get back together with her and then break up with her again just a week later? _I can't keep doing this to her. I just need to stay away from her. _Peter told himself.

Peter suddenly realized that he was running out in the open where everyone can see how fast he was going. He decided to duck into an alley to get out of view. Peter presses his fingers on a brick wall and pull them off. He does it again. Every time he does this there is a strange static feel his fingers have as they cohere to the wall. He hasn't really looked into it much but decides that it would be worth doing. He clings to the wall, turning his head back to make sure no one is watching him, and then quickly scurries up to the roof. The wind is nice and brisk on the rooftop and Peter takes a deep breath as he continues to dart and jump from rooftop to rooftop. _This is never going to get old. _

Just about thirty seconds later, he sees his house across the street and Aunt May's car pulling up to the driveway. _Oh, no. Oh, no._ Peter steps back a few feet getting ready to leap across the street and onto his roof. He hesitates. _What am I doing? I'm going to kill myself doing this. Oh, what the hell?_ Peter steps back again and then runs and leaps off the rooftop from across the street and lands on the balcony roof of his house, crashing straight through it and landing on the front porch.

"Ow…" Peter whimpers. He gets up wiping all of the debris off of him. _Aunt May is going to kill me. How the hell am I going to explain this to her? _He runs inside as as Aunt May's car pulls into the driveway.

4:32

Peter is lying on his bed in his room staring at the ceiling. _This is not going to be good._ His heart is thumping as he hears Aunt May come in through the front door.

"What on earth?" Aunt May says in wonder. "Peter, are you up there? If you are come down here. Now."

Peter swallows. "Yeah, I'm here Aunt May!" He opens his door and runs down the stairs. "What's wrong?"

"What happened to the balcony roof?" Aunt May asks.

"Balcony roof? What?" He rubs his hair, trying to play it cool and act as if he knew nothing about it.

Aunt May says nothing and simply points her finger outside the front door at all the debris laying on the ground.

"Oh, that. That...was from a squirrel." Peter's mind blanks out and that's the only thing he could come up with.

"A squirrel?" Aunt May asks in disbelief.

"Yeah, a squirrel. A big squirrel. I mean, a _huge_ squirrel. It was nuts. You should have seen it. I was in my room minding my own business and this squirrel just hops on the roof and it breaks."

"Okay, whatever. I'm going to call someone to come and fix the roof. There's dinner in the fridge if you're hungry." Aunt May shakes her head as Peter walks back upstairs.

Peter knew Aunt May didn't believe him. He wonders why she just dropped the subject entirely. Something wasn't right. Peter walked back into his room, put his headphones in and dropped on his bed. He was exhausted; he literally had not slept in a week. It must have been something from the spider bite that allows him to stay awake this long. Spider-adrenaline or something of that sort. He closed his eyes as his head hit the pillow and he finally fell asleep.


End file.
